PKI Blog

Oh the times they are a’changin. It seems like it was only yesterday that I loaded up Windows 7 and had my nice comfortable Internet Explorer 8, but alas, they grow up so fast and now it is time to bid a fond farewell to IE 8 and look to IE 9. As administrators this presents a whole slew of problems for us. Should we deploy the new version? Will all of our web interfaces work with it? Let us not forget the most frequent question that is voiced mostly by IT professionals and my five year old alike: DO I HAVE TO?

My name is Jamie Smith and I’m a Consultant for Certified Security Solutions Secure Infrastructure Management team. I would like to introduce you to the next segment of our ‘Windows 7 Accelerate with System Center’ marketing campaign: Deploying Virtualized Applications using System Center Configuration Manager 2007. If your organization is still running Windows XP then it’s time to take a long hard look at the calendar and look up April 8, 2014, or better yet, have a look here for the countdown. You have less than 22 months to man the Windows 7 lifeboats and evacuate the decommissioning Windows XP. Seeing as where a typical organization takes around 18 months to do a proper migration, that means there is still some time to step away from the panic button and look things over from stem to stern. One of the ways to can help yourself is by taking some of those applications that you really don’t want to install again and virtualize them.

Let's say you’ve found yourself working against the clock to get Windows 7 rolled out before Windows XP hits end of life, and during the planning phase you realize your current AV solution won’t work on Windows 7 without an upgrade. Now you’re faced with signing a new support contract and adding additional costs to your migration plan. But, like many Microsoft Core CAL and eCAL customers you already own the licenses to use Forefront Endpoint Protection, which works beautifully on Windows 7.

With the introduction of IE9, Microsoft is encouraging users and organizations across the globe to move on and upgrade from Internet Explorer 6. Microsoft has even launched a website to further the cause, www.ie6countdown.com.